Northland teen, handcuffed in his basement, is rescued

Kansas City police this week found a mentally challenged 17-year-old boy handcuffed to a steel pole in his basement and curled into a fetal position on the concrete floor.

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The teen’s stepmother answered the door and told police she would go downstairs to wake him. Police asked her to stay upstairs while they checked on the teen.

Police reports gave this account:

The officers went down a flight of wooden stairs into a dark basement.

“I didn’t do anything!” a voice from the darkness called out. “I didn’t do anything! I didn’t do anything!”

The officers switched on the lights and saw the frail teenager wearing dirty clothes and curled around the pole. The teen lifted himself to his knees. Officers noted that he was “very thin,” with sunken cheeks and a look of desperation in his eyes.

The officers consoled the teen and removed the cuffs.

The shivering teen rubbed his wrists, told officers his name and asked for his jacket and shoes. He had just a few thin blankets to lie on and use for covers, according to the police reports.

He said he had been locked in the basement since Sept. 27, when his father removed him from his high school, where he was a sophomore, reportedly to home-school him. At first, the teen could roam freely in the basement, he told police. But because he was hungry, he found a way out to get food, angering his father.